...to achieve deep quietness in the mental and physical state to alter your emotional and physical responses. After performing such exercises, you will soon notice that your heart rate decreases, as well as your muscle tension and blood pressure.

By practicing yoga regularly, this relaxation response can improve your overall health and the effects are lasting.

If you're going to treat yoga seriously, you will find more interesting subjects about it and how it reduces stress. Yoga exercises tend to slow down a person's brain waves, thereby reducing stress. By appropriately practicing co...more

Yoga: Ancient Wisdom for Today's Health

...Yoga may be as old as 5000 years, according to some. One of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and very much a living tradition today, it antedates other major religions of the world. Its wisdom is timeless and its perspectives on health and wellness prescient.

Yoga, like all major religions and religious philosophies explores the relationship of mind, spirit and body. The Bhagavad Gita ("song of the Lord"), written perhaps between 400 and 100 b.c.e., defines four major branches of yoga. Each is focused on an aspect of mind, spirit or body and explores their relationship from a different perspective.

* The first, Karma yoga, is the yoga of action in the world.

* The second, Jnana yoga, is the yoga of wisdom and intellectual endeavor.

* The third, Bhakti yoga, is the yoga of devotion to God.

* The fourth, Dhyana yoga, is the yoga of meditation.

Hatha yoga, a system of yoga introduced by Yogi Swatmarama of the 15th century is based on the yoga of Patanjali, who wrote sometime between 200 b.c.e. and 300 c.e. Patanjali's eight-step yogic system is a form of raja yoga, meaning it presents meditation as the path to the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Hatha yoga is the style most well-known in the West today. It focuses on purification of the physical as the path to purification of the mind and prana (vital energy). In this respect, it is very different from Patanjali's yoga in that Patanjali's yoga focuses on the purification of the mind as the path to purification of the prana and body.

In viewing the body as th...more

Keep a Rug Around for Yoga

...Sometimes a practicing yogi needs to do a few yoga poses in the most unlikely of places; at a bus stop, on the train, even in their own cubicle at work. I know I happen to have a lot of those random "I have to do the crow's pose right now" moments. In fact, it happens quite often especially in my cubicle. Since I don't usually carry my yoga mat everywhere with me, I decided to invest in a simple cotton rug for my work station.

I knew that when I was looking for an area rug it'd ha...more

Mantra, Japa, and Yogic Affirmation Methods for Anxiety Relief

...work, but has limited success. Why? If you want to divert your thinking, why not create an inspirational positive thought in the form of mantra, Japa, or affirmation.

Consider these words by French psychologist Emile Coue, Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. In truth, mantra, Japa, or positive affirmations are easier to remember when they are not complex. In the case of the monkey mind running wild, we might just say My though...more

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